Colton Herta set for maiden Formula E test with MS&AD Andretti - MotorSportsTalk

Colton Herta will expand his driving horizons a bit with confirmation Thursday he’ll have his maiden test in an FIA Formula E Championship car. He’ll run at the Marrakesh, Morocco rookie test in January.

Herta completed his first season with Andretti-Steinbrenner Racing in the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires series this year, and is poised to continue for a second year in 2018.

The full release is below.

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Andretti-Steinbrenner Racing Indy Lights driver Colton Herta will make his Formula E debut with MS&AD Andretti at the upcoming rookie test in Marrakesh, Morocco on January 14. The second-generation racer will test on the Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan, one day following the 2018 Marrakesh E-Prix.

“I was super excited when I got the call and I can’t thank MS&AD Andretti Formula E enough for the opportunity,” said Herta. “It’s the best Christmas present I could’ve gotten.”

Herta is coming off a successful rookie campaign in Indy Lights, where he won races in St. Petersburg and Barber Motorsports Park, and captured seven poles and seven podiums on his way to a third-place finish in the 2017 championship.

“I think Colton was very impressive in his rookie season of Indy Lights and he hasn’t even turned 18 yet,” said Andretti Formula E CEO Michael Andretti. “We are very excited to see what he can do in our Formula E car. He is one of the future stars in open-wheel racing and can be a real asset at the rookie test in Marrakesh.”

Herta will test in the MS&AD Andretti Formula E ATEC-03 cars, helping the Andretti Formula E team to continue to develop its Season 4 race car.

The MS&AD Andretti team will return to the track for Round Three of the FIA Formula E Championship in Marrakesh on January 13 with full-season drivers António Félix da Costa and Tom Blomqvist. Follow along with MS&AD Andretti at the Marrakesh E-Prix, Herta’s rookie test and the rest of the season via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at with @MSADAndrettiFE.

INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports